Activity 1.4: Wiki-Project -- "Lit. Crit.": Compare and Contrast: Double Bubble Map (graded)
Activity 1.4: Wiki-Project -- "Lit. Crit.": Compare and Contrast: Double Bubble Map (graded) Throughout high school you have been engaged in "lit. crit.", also referred to as literary criticism. However, you may not have examined a novel through multiple lenses. In fact, I suspect you've only engaged in "formalist" literary criticism. The interesting thing about looking at literature through various lenses is that each lens reveals new meaning about the same novel or play. So.... for this activity you are to examine, through the mythological lens, the excerpt from Oedipus as well as the excerpt from The Twins. You are required to use the “Lit. Crit. Template” (a Multi-Flow Map, actually) to help you “extract” meaning through the designated “lit. crit.” lens. For each excerpted piece of literature in this module, copy or draw this "Lit. Crit." Template, using a Web 2.0 tool of your choice (Inspiration, ReadWriteThink or Bubbl.us, or any other drawing tool) then complete it, filling it in with as much content as is relevant, and post it on your wiki for this activity. Hopefully, the designated "Lit. Crit." lens will yield much meaning. After doing so, you are to draw and complete a Double Bubble Map, again using a Web 2.0 tool of your choice, in which you compare and contrast the meaning(s)/message(s) that emerge(s) through the use of archetypes used in each of these excerpts (as examined through this mythological lens). Beneath your Double Bubble Map write a paragraph ofapproximately 250 words in which you comment about what is revealed by your thinking map approach. When done, post (copy-and-paste or insert) it on your wiki and constructively comment, in approximately 50 words, on two of your peers' wikis. Some additonal thoughts to help you with this assignment..... Sigmund Freud introduced the idea of two components that he believed underlie all human behavior: one, the personal conscious (thoughts, feelings, memories, desires) of which one is consciously aware; and two, the even deeper personal unconscious (primal drives or instincts, their personality components, memories of early childhood experiences, repressed memories, and other inner conflicts) of which we are unaware. A Freudian approach often includes pinpointing the influences of a character's id (the instinctual, pleasure seeking part of the mind), superego (the part of the mind that represses the id's impulses) and the ego (the part of the mind that controls but does not repress the id's impulses, releasing them in a healthy way). Freudian critics like to point out the sexual implications of symbols and imagery, since Freud's believed that all human behavior is motivated by sexuality. They tend to see concave images, such as ponds, flowers, cups, and caves as female symbols; whereas objects that are longer than they are wide are usually seen as phallic symbols. Dancing, riding, and flying are associated with sexual pleasure. Water is usually associated with birth, the female principle, the maternal, the womb, and the death wish. Freudian critics occasionally discern the presence of an Oedipus complex (a boy's unconscious rivalry with his father for the love of his mother) in the male characters of certain works, such as Hamlet. They may also refer to Freud's psychology of child development, which includes the oral stage, the anal stage, and the genital stage. Carl Jung, on the other hand, insisted there exists an even deeper level of unconscious which he referred to as thecollective unconscious, the real foundation, according to Jung, of Freud's two aforementioned components. Jung believed that, whereas the personal conscious and personal unconscious emerge from one's personal experience and development, the collective unconscious (components, awarenesses, and drives) is inherited from the evolutionary development of our species and, therefore, carries inherent human natures and themes (archetypes) common to all mankind, including those archetypes commonly codified in the mythologies of all cultures. Jung went so far as to suggest that all people possess a "natural religious function." Jung is also an influential force in myth (archetypal) criticism. Psychological critics are generally concerned with his concept of the process of individuation (the process of discovering what makes one different form everyone else). Jung labeled three parts of the self: the shadow, or the darker, unconscious self (usually the villain in literature); the persona, or a man's social personality (usually the hero); and the anima, or a man's "soul image" (usually the heroine). A neurosisoccurs when someone fails to assimilate one of these unconscious components into his conscious and projects it on someone else. The persona must be flexible and be able to balance the components of the psyche.